Webio program director has no regrets about leaving WSCR

Posted by Ed S. at 6/16/2009 8:08 AM CDT on Chicago Business

Jesse Rogers still is wondering how the best job he ever had vanished in an instant with the station owner facing charges from the SEC. But he said he has no regrets about leaving WSCR-AM 670 to become program director for Chicagosportswebio.com.

"For three months here, everything was just great," Mr. Rogers said. "It was the best place I ever worked at. I doubled my salary. I absolutely don't regret anything. I wasn't sure it was going to last, but it was an opportunity I had to take. At least I made good money for three months."

Hindsight was the order of the day Tuesday, and Mr. Rogers had a better view than most. He worked closely with owner David Hernandez. On Monday, the SEC sued Mr. Hernandez, alleging he ran a Ponzi scheme, using some of the funds to launch the new Internet sports talk station.

Mr. Hernandez spent lavishly on the endeavor. He poured nearly $300,000 into marketing for the station, which went on the air in April. Webio sent five people to Detroit during the Blackhawks series with the Red Wings; SCR sent nobody. After a launch party in March, he gave staffers envelopes with $500 checks (they cleared) to celebrate the beginning of the new station.

Initially, Mr. Rogers didn't see anything out of line with Mr. Hernandez.

"I assume he was willing to take some losses," Mr. Rogers said. "Yeah, did I wonder? I suppose I did, looking back. I just thought he was one of those guys who thought you have to spend money to make money. That's what anybody would be looking for."

Mr. Rogers said everything appeared to be running smoothly until three weeks ago when the first checks started to bounce. He said Mr. Hernandez explained it was a bank error, even attaching a letter from the bank.

Mr. Rogers said he didn't think anything of it at first. But then he started to notice a change in Mr. Hernandez's behavior.

Mr. Hernandez had been hands-on until that point, Mr. Rogers said. Suddenly, he became unavailable.

"He wouldn't return our calls," Mr. Rogers said. "Everything was running smoothly. Then all of the sudden, it's not."

Mr. Rogers said only his last check didn't clear. He was lucky since others had as many as four bounced checks.

Mr. Rogers was on hand Monday when Mr. Hernandez addressed the staff. Mr. Hernandez wouldn't allow him to attend the meeting.

Mr. Rogers speculates that it stemmed from him asking questions about whether Mr. Hernandez spent time in jail. Mr. Hernandez was convicted for wire fraud in 1998 and was sentenced to 34 months in jail.

"Somebody asked him about it," Mr. Rogers said. "He denied it and learned that it had come from me. Turns out he suspended me."

Mr. Rogers learned that at the meeting Mr. Hernandez made accusations of improprieties against Mike North, his wife BeBe, and Jeff Schwartz. Mr. North was a co-founder in the station, with BeBe serving as the chief operating officer and Mr. Schwartz as the sales manager.

"I want to stress Mike, BeBe and Jeff did nothing wrong," Mr. Rogers said. "I worked closely with BeBe and we went to David if we needed to get anything approved. A computer, travel. All they wanted to do was build something here."

Mr. Rogers thinks the station actually got off to a highly successful start. Advertising was better than expected, and they were building a nice core of listeners.

"We have a good foundation here," Mr. Rogers said. "I absolutely think this could have worked. I thought we had a good product. It's a shame we didn't have a chance to see it through."

It's always difficult to pull one over on Jesse.

Jesse is really a perfect example of the Peter Principle. He was a great producer, maybe the best the SCORE has ever had...but he just had to get on the air.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Good god. Jesse's naivete and stupdity are rivaled only by that of Mike North.

I'm surprised Mrs Jessie didn't run a quick Lexis query.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

It's hard to believe that a braintrust like Jesse got hoodwinked.

Speaking of hodwinked, homework assignment for Mac and B&B producers- I think Pappy's old Malcom X drop would be golden.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

Did he say all was good for three months? What? He still says that knowing the foundation was all based on a lie and conjob? You had a great product (in your opinion) because a scam artist scammed the Norths and spent money he stole from others. Jesse needs a helmet so he wont hurt himself bumping into walls.

So they asked Hernandez about the bankruptcies after throwing in their lot w/ him? And his reaction to suspend Jesse Rogers—rather than openly address the issue and allay his staff's concerns—didn't raise any red flags?

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I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. -Susan B. Anthony

Jesse is happy about making good money for three months? Money that was essentially stolen from others. Yeah...feel good about that you moron.

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

Unbelievable, Jesse was able to sound both ridiculously stupid and cocky/arrogant at the same time. Frankly, he'd be wise to sit on any cash he took from webio. Attorneys for the investors who gave Hernandez the $11 million will want all of that money returned. The doctrine of fraudulent conveyance applies to any transfers within 60 days of a declaration of bankruptcy which has to be coming for all of the Hernandez entities. Watch how ugly this gets for the webio employees, many of whom were totally unaware. The fact that the "senior management" ifyou can call North, Space, Jesse, Bebe etc. that, got paid while others didn't means they'r emore vulnerable than the poor paeans who had 4 checks bounce. FOUR CHECKS BOUNCE!!! That is unconscionable. Anybody who cashed a paycheck from webio had better hold onto that cash as it will likely be the subject of disgorgement proceedings soon enough.

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"I still think its a tremendous idea".
"It's my baby".

What exactly were they working closely on? They didn't seem to be aware of the budget (or didn't care about the budget), and they discovered Boom-Boom as a talk show talent? Good work.

It will be interesting to see what both Norths were being paid for their work.

This all started because 800K was an insulting offer.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Approving George's Detroit expense account. Apparently the exorbitant charges for "in-room entertainment" were raising some eyebrows, but Hernanez OKed it.

O Jesse Jesse Jesse, a big WTF?!:
"It was the best place I ever worked at. I absolutely don't regret anything."

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fan of Latinspice. fan of DJ Julie. fan of L.E.A.N.

I wonder how great it was spending somebodys pension who prolly had cancer and was going thru chemo, Jessie, you stupid wanna-be Mike Nort.

DH hit the fucking con mans gold mine here with this group of fucking nimrods.

This guy just got took, and hes fucking defending it.
Its like getting raped and telling everybody you orgasmed.

I gotta break Poofer character here and say I do indeed feel sorry for the younger guys in this mess who didnt know any better, hopefully this doesnt bite you in the ass so deep you wont find another hosting chair to sit down in, but for the Norts, Rodgers, these fucking walking rectal exams deserve not only being black listed from chicago media, but have to wear big, scarlett lettered "D"'s on their foreheads, like two of the biggest town dunces this city has ever seen.

Its easy to knock these guys, all of them, but one thing Iam sure the big, caring, defender of the little guy is saying when he locks his door at night and shuts down his computer when BeBe, that stupid fucking fugly broad asks him "what about the other guys, Mike?", Norts gonna turn around to her fucking gorilla lips looking mug and say "Well, Wal-marts hiring, I gotta get sum sleep cuz I have a show ta do in da mornin".

Fuck you Mike Nort, and even somebody who doesnt know too much about the law knows your stuipd act is going to get you into so much more than you think, and you can go on every show all over the city saying your innocent, but the bottom line is your a fucking liar, and while you MIGHT not had any part of fraud, your hands are just as dirty.


I hope your driving a convertible when a truck filled with port-a-potties accidently tips over on your car, you fucking walking piece of shit, youd be right at fucking home.

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Wow thats an extemely apt comparison. Good Work Cup.

Cup-Some of his posts are not that bad.

This douche regrets NOTHING?! He helped preside over this disaster which (a) consisted of programming such as a washed-up Coppock talking with a punch-drunk boxer that thinks Ben Wallace is on the Bulls and (b) was funded by one of the all-time scumbags who was paying Jesse's over-inflated salary ('til the checks bounced) with money basically stolen from investors and (c) has now resulted in him being unemployed in an industry that's cutting and slashing people and expenses left and right.

Nope, nothing much to regret there, I guess. Carry on, Jesse.

Jesse Rogers really is stupid. This proves it.

"Best 3 months at any job"

"At least I made double my Score salary for 3 months"

What a dope. Like you guys said, the money he got was dirty. Stolen from others. His wife needs to sit him down and explain things to him.

Sometimes you feel bad about laughing at these guys but, Jesus Christ, Jesse Rogers is looking at the bright side of this thing.

he's a cub fan. what do you expect?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I hope jesse saved some of that GOOD PAY. Since that money he got paid belonged to somone else, he may have to pay it back. Nice Jesse. You knew it wasnt yours before you made the comment. What a tool.

I like how Jessie, Nort, and BeBe all had these big time jobs and titles, yet all run to the media telling how they didn't know anything.

They are either criminals or idiots. Or maybe both.

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Wow, Jesse comes off like a complete idiot in this article.


I HATE when people say they have no regrets about a bad situation, that's one of my pet peeves. Like having regret is some sort of weakness or something. Let me tell you, my life has worked out pretty good and I have PLENTY of regret about things that have happened to me or mistakes I've made, big and small. There's nothing wrong with regretting a mistake you made or some misfortune you've had.

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It's also quite pathetic of Jesse to brag about getting all but 1 check when Fred said he missed 6 and Webby missed 3 or 4. That's disgusting. He's saying "Ha Ha, I got more dirty money than you".

Dan Bernstein, I know you're reading this, as a friend you should call all of these guys and tell them to STOP TALKING. They are all stupid guys and they need your voice of reason right now. You're the only one that can save them. Don't tell North. Tell him to keep talking.

(I'm posting this here and in the B&B section. You gotta get this message across to these idiots.)

jessie,

good luck finding a job in radio after these comments

_________________
Frank Coztansa wrote:
Please die in a fire.

Very nieve, but he probably asked 'how high' when mike said 'jump'.

I hope he returns as a baseball reporter for the Score, but not holding my breath on this happening.

Whip is cheaper and better.

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

why ? what makes this egghead a good baseball reporter? based on the comments he made in the sherman article, he is barely qualified to work at arby's. he was the program director and when weber asked him about his bounced check, rogers told him to call the CEO.

_________________
Frank Coztansa wrote:
Please die in a fire.

Being qualified as a baseball reporter doesn't mean you are qualifed to be a program director.

I thought he did a good job last season with Boers/Bernstein with the daily report. I understand it's not brain surgery to report on baseball, but he did a solid job, and was always well prepared in that role.